How Much Hay Does a Horse Eat a Day? (With Chart)

How much hay does a horse eat per day by body weight?

A horse eats about 2% of its body weight in hay or other forage per day as a starting point, and forage should make up at least half of everything it eats. The University of Maryland says horses should consume 2% of their body weight in hay. The Merck Veterinary Manual gives a range of 2 to 2.5% of body weight in dry matter feed "as a starting point" for an average healthy horse, and says forage "should be fed at no less than 50% of total intake."

The percentage formula

Multiply your horse's weight by the percentage: 2% of 1,000 lb is 20 lb, and 2% of 500 kg is 10 kg. The British Horse Society's worked example for a 500 kg horse comes to 10 kg a day, a total that can include grazing, hay and bucket feed. Kentucky's equine extension specialist Bob Coleman puts a 1,200 lb horse at "approximately 24 lbs. of hay daily". For the whole ration of forage plus grain, Minnesota targets 1.5% for easy keepers or overweight horses and 2.5% for hard keepers.

Merck counts in dry matter, the feed minus its water, and describes dried hays as more than 88 to 90% dry matter, so by our own arithmetic 20 lb of dry matter is about 22 lb of hay from the bale. Most owner guides don't say which they mean.

How to find your horse's true weight

The formula is only as good as the weight you put into it: a calibrated scale or weighbridge is best, and a weight tape is a useful second choice. Merck says weight tapes "tend to underestimate actual body weight" but are useful for tracking change, and that they are not suitable for miniature horses, donkeys or draft horses. A wrong guess adds up: Coleman pointed out in 2020 that if you buy 100 days of hay for a 1,000-pound horse that really weighs 1,200 pounds, "you'll be short by more than eight bales per horse." Our guide to how much a horse weighs shows how to use a tape and a formula.

From pounds to flakes and bales

Flakes vary too much to count blindly, so weigh a few from your own hay and divide the daily amount by that weight. Penn State Extension warns that the weight of each flake "can vary greatly depending on how compact the bales were made by the baler"; three flakes from a single bale in its example weighed 4.57, 3.21 and 4.54 lb. By our own arithmetic, 20 pounds is about 4 to 6 flakes of that size.

Bales differ as well. Merck puts small bales at 49 to 66 pounds, and TheHorse.com, summarizing Coleman's advice in 2026, says not to assume "it's a 50-pound bale based on appearance alone." Once you know your bale weight, the year follows: a 1,000-pound horse eating 20 pounds a day will eat about 7,300 pounds or 3.6 tons a year, Minnesota calculates, which by our arithmetic is 146 bales of 50 pounds before waste.

How much hay does one horse eat a day? A chart by type and weight

How much hay one horse eats a day runs from about 4 kg (9 lb) for a 200 kg pony to about 18 kg (40 lb) for a 900 kg draft horse at 2% of body weight, by our own arithmetic. The pony, average horse and draft horse weights are the estimated adult weights in Merck's nutrient tables; which column fits your horse is for you and your vet or nutritionist to decide.

Factors that adjust the amount

Work, age, metabolism, grass and cold all move the number, which is why Minnesota says to "feed each horse as an individual".

• Workload. A moderately exercised 1,000-pound horse, working three to five hours a week, still eats about 2% in Minnesota's example, but as 15 pounds of hay and 5 pounds of concentrate. Minnesota suggests changing the type of hay before adding grain.
• Life stage. Minnesota's example for a growing 12-month-old horse of 700 pounds is 14 pounds of feed a day, 10.5 of them hay. At the other end, the British Horse Society says elderly horses or those with dental issues may need a forage replacement, often a high-fiber mash that is easy to chew, chosen with your vet or a nutritionist.
• Metabolism and breed. Merck says ponies, warmbloods and draft breeds tend to have requirements at the lower range of its 2 to 2.5% range, and Thoroughbreds at the higher end. So how much hay does a draft horse eat per day? By our own arithmetic, 2% of 900 kg is 18 kg, about 40 pounds. Ponies on pasture have been reported to eat up to 4.9% of their body weight a day, Merck notes.
• Weight loss. The floors differ: Minnesota says at least 1% of body weight in roughage, Merck no less than 1.25% in dry matter of total feed when dieting, and the British Horse Society a daily ration of no less than 1.5% "without a vet's instruction to do so."
• Grass. The British Horse Society says it is "very difficult to calculate how much grass your horse will eat during turnout." Feed hay for the hours your horse is in and let its body condition score show whether the total is right.
• Cold. In Minnesota's example, a 1,000-pound idle horse that needs 16 pounds of good-quality hay a day at 18 °F (about -8 °C) may need 18 to 18.5 pounds at 0 °F (about -18 °C), and more without shelter.

How do you build a healthy horse feeding schedule?

A healthy horse feeding schedule keeps forage available for long stretches of the day, because horses are built to eat small, frequent meals. Minnesota notes that horses have simple stomachs and hindguts that aid in fiber digestion and "eat small frequent meals throughout the day," and the British Horse Society says they have evolved to eat little and often, chewing for up to 18 hours a day.

Why small, frequent meals matter

Chewing hay makes saliva, and saliva buffers the stomach acid a horse produces all the time, so long gaps without forage raise the risk of ulcers. The British Horse Society explains that horses "continuously produce stomach acid" and that saliva reduces the likelihood of gastric ulceration, and Merck links prolonged fasting to equine gastric ulcer syndrome. For a horse on a smaller ration, a hay net stretches the meal: in a small University of Minnesota study funded by Cargill, eight overweight horses finished their hay in 2.0 hours off the stall floor and 3.2 hours from hay nets.

Balancing hay with grains and supplements

Hay stays the base of the ration: forage should make up at least half of what a horse eats, and any grain goes in small meals on top. Minnesota says that regardless of the class of horse, forages should make up at least 50% of the daily ration; a lab test shows which vitamins and minerals your hay lacks. Merck's limit for grain-based concentrates is no more than 0.5% of body weight in one feeding, 2.5 kg or 5.5 pounds for a 500 kg horse, with larger daily amounts split into smaller meals at least 4 hours apart.

Once the amounts are set, the schedule is only as good as the evening feed on the Tuesday you're stuck at work. The helper has to know how many flakes go in each net and whether the gray already had his grain.

Hay and water go together

A horse on dry hay drinks more: Merck says that if horses are fed only dry hay, their water intake "can almost double." Minnesota puts most 1,000-pound adult horses at at least 10 to 12 gallons of water daily, about 38 to 45 liters. Our guide to how much water a horse drinks has the numbers by weight and season.

How do you choose good hay for your horse?

Good hay is leafy and green, smells fresh rather than musty, and is free of mold, dust and foreign material; only a lab test tells you what is in it. UConn Extension's guide to hay analysis says that the more leaves a hay has, the more nutrients it is likely to contain.

Signs of clean, safe hay

Color and smell tell you most of what a visual check can, as UConn's table shows.

UConn also warns about foreign material such as poisonous plants or wire. Merck adds that horses are particularly sensitive to toxins found in spoiled feeds, and excessively dry, dusty feeds can start or worsen respiratory problems. Minnesota calls laboratory testing the best way to know hay quality, and Kentucky puts a hay analysis at $20 to $35 per sample.

Grass hay or alfalfa?

Grass hays such as timothy and orchard grass have moderate protein, energy and minerals, while legumes such as alfalfa carry more protein, minerals and vitamins. Merck lists timothy, brome, coastal Bermuda, orchard grass and teff as common grass hays; legumes are more prone to mold, and alfalfa grown in the western US can carry blister beetles, which are lethal to horses. Minnesota says alfalfa is higher in digestible energy and other nutrients like amino acids and calcium than grass, and UConn gives crude protein of six to eight percent in native grass hays against about 15% or higher in high-quality legume hays. Haylage is another matter: it holds more water, and the British Horse Society says it needs to be fed in higher quantities than hay.

How much hay does a horse eat in one day? The recap

A horse's hay for one day comes down to its body weight times about 2%, adjusted for work, age, metabolism, grass and cold, and checked on the scale. For the question of how much hay does a horse eat in a day at your own barn, these are the steps:

1. Weigh or tape your horse and write down the weight with the date.
2. Multiply by 2%, or by the percentage your vet or nutritionist sets.
3. Weigh a few flakes of your own hay and turn the pounds into flakes.
4. Spread the hay over the day, keep forage at least half of the ration and keep fresh water in reach.
5. Weigh again when the work, the grass, the season or the load of hay changes.